CAESAR (Compact And Extended Sources Automated Recognition) service provides a straightforward solution to segment astrophysical FITS maps, allowing for the extraction and characterization of both compact (e.g. stars, galaxies) and extended sources (e.g. galactic filaments, supernovae remnants).
A revolution in astronomy is unfolding. All-sky surveys performed by next generation facilities, such as the Vera Rubin Observatory or the Square Kilometer Array, will transform our understanding of the cosmos, allowing us to address the most relevant astrophysical questions from a global perspective. However, the unparalleled sky coverage, angular resolution and sensitivity of all these forthcoming surveys come with an unescapable drawback: the increasing size and complexity of the datasets will pose significant technical and scientific challenges, that will push the processing and analysis capabilities of the astrophysics community to the limits. To overcome such challenges, new approaches based on distributed cloud architectures and powered by machine learning and deep learning techniques will be required.
Much of the science to be done in this new, exciting era relies on a fundamental step, the correct identification of astrophysical sources in large scale maps. This task, traditionally done by means of visual inspection and cross-matching with existing catalogues, is now carried out by the so-called source finders, pieces of software specifically designed to identify and characterize astronomical sources in a mostly automated way. However, the new surveys are expected to reveal tens of millions of sources, reaching source densities of several 1000s per deg2. These numbers will render conventional source extraction techniques unfeasible, exceeding the current capabilities of state-of-the-art source finders and underlining the need for a much higher level of automation and knowledge extraction.
But don’t despair! NEANIAS’ response to this problem is the CAESAR (Compact And Extended Source Automated Recognition) service, a powerful tool particularly tailored to the needs of the SKA revolution. CAESAR is able to extract and characterize sources from large astronomical images in an extremely efficient way. Unlike other state-of-the-art source finders, CAESAR is particularly capable of dealing with the most extended, shallow sources, like those that will likely be unveiled thanks to the unmatched capabilities of the SKA.
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